Full support for trade unions, welfare legislation, profit-sharing in industry, and cooperative organisations was contained in a pastoral letter read in Quebec's churches on Sunday last.
The pastoral was signed by Mgr. M. toy, Archbishop of Quebec, and the 24 other Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Quebec, according to agency
reports.
In it private enterprise was told that it should assist in the defeat of Communism by sharing profits with employees. The letter urged State welfare legislation, saying that workers with full stomachs were not likely to turn to Leftist ideologies.
Endorsing trade unions as being indispensable. the Bishops said that "workers must unite in soii ! professional organisations that take their inspiration from the social doctrine of the Church."
It will he recalled that the Quebec unions recently affiliated to the International Federation of Christian Trade Unions, since when their membership has soared.
UNITE EFFORTS 'The pastoral went on : " Workers must also unite their efforts and their resources in cooperative organisations for their economic prosperity and their social advancement.
" Individual efforts of workers, their collective efforts. through Catholic Action. professional associations and the cooperative movement are therefore indispensable conditions of restoration of labour life."
It concluded with the warning that the " labour problem will never be settled unless economic, political and social order facilitates among workers a great and beautiful family I ife."